Well, now that I've got the falcon running and driving fine, its time for me to change it all over again. I'm thinking about making it into a g***er, and probably putting a decently built up 351W in it that way I can re-use my headers and transmission. I've been looking at a few options. I can get a straight axle out of a older ford truck or econoline van and use it in my car. I've thought about that, but I want to keep disc brakes on my car. Next summer I'm driving it to school (***uming its done by then), which is about a 300 mile trip, and it'll probably see a lot of driving when I'm home too in the spring and fall, so I'm gonna need decent brakes. So any suggestions about putting disc brakes on an older straight axle would be helpful. I was also looking at this Falcon on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1964...QcmdZ ViewItem And looked up the speedway motors kits. They offer a couple different straight axle kits for about 600 bucks that include springs, axle, and spindles, and also some other kits that include disc brakes. I thought mabye about doing that, but I'm not sure what width, the difference between some of the straight axles, and or how well they work out. Either way, I'd like some feedback from guys who have done these conversions, and how well they handled (not expecting much) and how it worked out. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Tingler drives the **** out of his g***er Fairlane. Instead of cutting up a "done" car why not buy my 64 Tudor Falcon? It's pretty solid, no engine or ******, good KY ***le, and cheap. PM me if interested.
I may be interested, but right now I'm in school and won't be home till late september. But as for my car, "cutting it up" isn't really a big deal. There isn't anything really original about the car now. One of the reasons I wanted to do the g***er was because I've got an I6 suspension, which I'm not sure will last that long with a V8 above it, and the engine in my car isn't really that good to begin with, so I'd like to replace it with something bigger. That and I'm sick of bottoming out with my car and I'd like it to look a little different from the rest of the Falcon's on the road. I'm glad to here someone drives there g***er a lot. I asked this question on the Fordmuscle forums and they started telling me horror stories of car's not tracking right and not being able to steer at high speeds. If it really is that bad, I would opt for an aftermarket straight axle conversion kit and might just to make things easier anyway. Anyways, I'm still looking for ideas, thanks.
the speedway is an easy deal to install and the track width is about right for a falcon . you can get the ford or chevy spindles and which ever disc set up you want to use on it and you will get rid of those dreaded shock towers too.good luck (oh and they drive real good if you do it right ..
Thanks alot for the help! Any suggestions on if I should go with either the ford or chevy spindles? I think the chevy's may be a little cheaper. I'm going to have to look if they have a disc brake set up that goes along with it.
G***ers are dumb. Why would you ever want one of those things? "hit the switches, holmes".... "Make it hop"..."is that a lowrider".....etc. The Speedway stuff is the way I went. I was too lazy to put together a junkyard kit. $600 isn't close. I think I spent around $1200 by the time it was all said and done. The Ford and the Chevy spindles from Speedway all work out to be about the same price. The Chevy ones look a little beefier I think, but I bought the FORD ones anyhow. They're easy to deal with. I got the 4" drop axle subs***uted for the straight one because the 4" drop one is 48" long and the straight one is 46" long. The straight one would have been too narrow under my Fairlane. FORD FREAK on here has used the straight one under his falcon (I think). He may be the one to ask questions to. The Zettle Bros. on here ALSO have a Falcon g***er and I'm sure it has a straight axle under it. At any rate, I used the 4" drop axle, and it looks crazy hanging down under the frontend of the car. Yeah, that means I LIKE IT! I'm fairly pleased with the Speedway stuff, but I've been collecting axles recently, and I'm looking forward to using CHEAPER parts on some future projects. Let me know if I can help you in any way. Don't hesitate to ask questions. TINGLER
My two cents worth ... for a '65 Falcon, an A/FX look is much more interesting and authentic than the g***er look. Basically, by the time '65 Falcon's became cheap enough to hack into Gas cl*** cars, the Gas cl***es were actually dead. You can still do a straight axle, etc. but take an example from some of the "Factory Experimental" drag cars of the day.
Here it is: This pic was taken before I wised up and put a different drag link under it. You can see in the pic how I put a big ***ed bend in the first draglink to get it to connect up. There was a LOT of flex in the damn thing, it was really dangerous as hell. I still drove it a few thousand miles, but I shouldn't have. I've since changed that all out. ......Thats one thing you should be aware of, I HAVE driven my car a lot, BUT I'VE ALSO WORKED ON IT A LOT. If you are in a situation where you need to count on your car everyday, then you may want to rethink the whole "g***er" thing. Not because it handles badly, but because it will take so much of your time to put it together and work out the bugs. I found that it wasn't simply a "bolt on and go" kind of dealio. There was a LOT of fabrication.
I'm g***er nutty at the moment... ok, I've been that way for years... here's one I bought about 7 or 8 years ago... a fellow teacher owns it now. '60 Falcon, NARROWED econoline axle, 351C 4v, 4 spd, 9" rear... it hauled ***. I'd go the cheap route and narrow a stock axle so the wheels are under the fenders... and the springs line up with the rails. Sam.
Wow, that fairlane looks awesome. I realized I may have underestimated the speedway kit, without the brake parts and shipping its 600-ish. The vehicle won't be relied on every day, I walk to all my cl***es, but I will drive it on the freeway, and round town. My question is if I choose to make a "junkyard kit" and find a straight axle the right width, will it be hard to get disc brakes for it and will it track straight ***uming I install it properly? Also, as far as an A/FX look, I'm not sure I know what you mean by that
A/FX was a "factory experimental" cl*** that eventually morphed into the modern funny car cl***. The tell tale que is the altered wheel base... instead of moving the engine back, they would move the rear (and front) suspension forward to get more weight on the rear tires... Sam.
One of my buddies here in Livermore is putting together a '65(?) Ranchero g***er with a Poncho mill in it. He used the MAS racing kit, and it ended up being a little shoddy, he said. He's having a hard time doing the steering, maybe I should have you call him Sam, if you'd be okay with that. He's not a HAMBer, he only gets on the computer to download banjo bluegr*** music.
The brakes depend on what the axle is out of. Find the axle, then check around on the 'net to see if disc brakes are available. Also check postal jeeps and other 2wd jeeps, they may have an axle with discs already there. As far as tracking - it should, as you say, ***uming it is installed properly. That would take careful measuring to make sure the wheelbase is the same on both sides and the ch***is is square. You should probably tie the subframes together too if you haven't already. A straight axle with leaf springs is not exotic one off stuff, it's a proven formula provided everything "measures up" and is SAFE.
Near-na-near-neer-neer-near-near- neer... neeeer!! Bluegr***, yea... I'll talk to him... better yet, come by some time, pick me up... and we'll go over there! Sam.
I already have subframe connectors, and a monte carlo bar that'll hold it together. I may look at some other ways to reinforce it though.The A/FX mods soud pretty cool, but a litle complicated and it sounds like I'd have to keep my inner fenders and current suspension, which I'd rather not. Sam, are the 60' falcons more narrow than the 65's? I heard an older econoline straight axle was the same width as my front end, but mabye not. I'd rather save some money doing the junkyard conversion, but if it ends up I have to paid to get stuff narrowed and buy new parts, I might as well play it safe and go with a kit. I'm gonna do some research tonight. Thanks for the help.
O.K. it looks like you have a lot of questions. Please, do yourself a favor and do not make a move without having a detailed plan first. My car still has the inner fenders and even the shock towers still in place. Its easiest to do it that way. You will still have to weld on some sort of spring mounts on the underside of your unibody frame to accept the leaf springs. I opted NOT to remove the shock towers and inner fenders because I was (still am) inexperienced and learning as I go. My next move with the car is to create a custom tube frame with a rollcage that will somehow be put in place of the factory unibody ****. Does it sound like I'm being vague? YES, I am, I still haven't figured out how to do it. When I figure it out and come up with a budget, you can bet I will do it. BIGGER ENGINE ALTERED WHEELBASE A/FX WHEELIE POPPIN MOFO. Thats what I'm personally going for......a little at a time. If you don't know anything about what degrees of caster you need, how to make sure the front end is square with the rear end, how to make sure the ackerman angles are right, how to eliminate bumpsteer, how to weld an axle without warping it, etc etc etc.....then you are already in over your head. Now that doesn't mean a whole lot, as I was certainly in over my head when I started.....but I learned as I went and kept at it. How prepared are you to do this thing? You need to ask yourself that and be honest with the response.
I know I am in over my head, that I'm pretty sure of. But I am not in a hurry, and I have other cars to drive, and I am willing to learn. I was in over my head whenever I completely restored the car, but I learned so much by doing it. I realize this is different, and if I make a mistake with the suspension, it may not be driveable, but that means I just have to take my time with it. I don't have any intent to begin on this project before october, but if I decide to do it, I have a long time to plan it. If I do it though, I will try to pick the safest way to do it, probably involving a kit if I have to. Thank you for the help.
Yes we have a straight axle under our Falcon. It has the Speedway straight tube axle with the Ford spindes and GM discs and brakes. The only thing I don't like about the axle is that the wheels have a heck of a negitive camber on them. This could be from the guy who fabbed it up from welding it or the axle was turned upside down when it was put together, I'm not sure. I know that the A/FX cars put a negitve camber in the wheels to make them track straighter down the track. Basically there is nothing orignial left to the floor of the car. It is a tube frame with fabbed up floor and wheel well tubes. The firewall is also new with a recessment in it for the distributor. There are many times the our cars have been given the name g***er but there not. Alot of A/FX cars had straight axles on them so taking the inner fenders and the shock towers off would be fine. If you need some ideas the book "Super Stock, Racing the Family Sedan" is a good one with lots of pics.
Then you will be fine!.... Again, let me know if I can help you in any way. I'm no rocket scientist, but I can tell you what I did to my car. TINGLER
What he said. I used the 4" dropped on mine. The width was perfect in my opinion. Should be for yours too. If you want to see pics, do a search for "falcon wagon g***er" on here. If you can't find it, let me know and I will e-mail them to you . Hope this helps you. Bernie
Goober- The gas cl***es may have fadded away sooner in your area than mine. I can remember several ChevyIIs,Falcons, 55-57 Chevys, etc. running various gas cl***es at the local NY strips as late as 74-75. Gotta go along with ya on the A/FX theme. It would be more interesting and WILDER! 65 Falcons look great that way. Just my 2 cents worth....... Bernie
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